Primary care residents want to learn about the patient-centered medical home

The patient-centered medical home (PCMH) is an important model of primary care with a promise of improving quality, reducing costs, and improving patient satisfaction. Many primary care residency programs have PCMH initiatives, but it is unclear if residents are interested in learning more about the PCMH. Our objective was to examine primary care residents' attitudes and knowledge about the PCMH model and how it relates to them.

A total of 82 first- through third-year family medicine and internal medicine residents participated in a survey with 25 questions. Descriptive statistics were performed to describe the responses.

The survey response rate was 91%. Sixty-one percent of residents thought they had "poor" or "fair" knowledge of the PCMH, and 84% thought it was important to be knowledgeable about the PCMH. Thirty-four percent rated their ability to describe the PCMH as "well" or "very well." Eighty-six percent thought they learned "too little" or "way too little" about the PCMH during medical school. The majority (88%) of residents were interested in learning more about the PCMH.

Family and internal medicine residents are interested in learning more about the PCMH during residency. Residents may benefit from experiential learning that focuses on the PCMH.